Wedding Planner
Each and every year around 2.5 million weddings take place
nationwide. This means that the number of weddings that will
take place in your immediate area is astounding. Your wedding
plans are going to be affected by number of factors, because
many more weddings will happen at or around the same time as
your wedding.
If you want even the tiniest little detail to be taken care of
at your wedding, it's recommended that you hire a wedding
planner. Hiring a wedding planner can save you a lot of time and
money. The wedding planner will help you coordinate your wedding
and the most important of all the wedding planner will save you
from frustration.
So, what is a wedding planner anyway, and what does the wedding
planner do?
A wedding planner (sometimes called a wedding consultant,
wedding coordinator or a wedding producer) is hired to help the
bride and groom coordinate a wide variety of tasks associated
with their wedding. Planning your wedding can get vary
frustrating at times, which on the other hand will make you
forget about the fun that you need to have at your wedding. So,
it is a good idea to spend a little bit more on a wedding
planner to make sure your wedding day goes smooth.
A wedding planner can help plan many aspects of your wedding,
including DJs, floral arrangements, cake, seating arrangements,
invitations, photography, and so on. In some cases, a wedding
planner might be able to use his or her industry connections
with vendors to get you a good deal on many things.
The wedding planner will conduct an interview with the
bride-to-be and the groom-to-be, and then coordinate the details
of the wedding that have been agreed upon. A good wedding
planner will be able to assist in organizing, budgeting and
purchasing services for your wedding. A good wedding planner
after the interview will put a contract together that you and
him or her need to sign. Without a contract there's a lot of
room for misunderstanding and confusion of what was agreed
between you and your wedding planner.
In the contract or often referred to as a letter of agreement,
the wedding planner will include the services that the he or she
is expected to perform, the cost of these services and the
payment terms.
When you receive the contract, if there's anything you do not
agree with or anything not to your desire, discuss it with your
wedding planner before signing it. When you sign the contract,
you and your soon to-be wedding planner have to agree on all of
the items listed to avoid any possible misunderstanding. But
remember: even though you have been through the interview
process, you are not obligated to continue with that particular
wedding planner until you sign the contract.
So, how can you find a wedding planner, and not just any wedding
planner, but a good wedding planner?
Nowadays, it's probably the easiest to find a wedding planner on
the Internet. But, it's best if you know anyone who had had a
wedding planner for their wedding. Referrals are always the best.
But, even if you have to seek help from the Internet or the
yellow pages, when looking for a wedding planner, be sure to ask
for his or her credentials. Ask for references from each of your
potential wedding planners and research their past work. Also,
ask to see a few other weddings your potential wedding planner
has prepared. This will help you make a decision very easily
whether you like the style of that particular wedding planner or
you need to seek another one. Keep a lookout for the wedding
planner you'd like, and don't hesitate to ask family and friends
for suggestions.
Some of the advantages of hiring a wedding planner are, of
course saving you from frustration; money savings, since most
wedding planners have connections in the industry; solving your
wedding problems; low stress since your wedding planner is there
to pick up the slack should a problem arises.
But, there could also be some disadvantages, such as:
overconfident (ego) wedding planner may try to convince you into
having a wedding of "his or her dreams" and not the wedding of
your dreams. If you're a person who likes to be known or to show
off, hiring a wedding planner may not be a good idea as they
will be in charge of your wedding. Another disadvantage could be
that you may accidentaly hire a scam artist who may not have
done any weddings while broadcasting his or her enormous
experience. That's why it is vital to do a thorough research on
the wedding planners of your interest.
So, how much does a wedding planner cost?
If you hire a wedding planner expect their fee to be anywhere
between 5% and up to 20% of your total wedding budget. At the
end of the day it will be your decision whether you want to
concentrate on the fun that you will have at your wedding while
your wedding planner takes care of the details, or you want to
be in charge of the details that will make hiring a wedding
planner a waste of money.
Have fun interviewing those wedding planners.